Christopher Guest, Dan Finnerty, and IT. Gotta love it. (via Very Short List)

Yes, it’s been a month since I posted. Sorry for the vacation.

Via Metroblogging, a nice clip of Mr. Wizard on David Letterman.

We’ll miss you!

I’m still wading through my redesign of Daily Guilt, and one of the things I’ve been working on building is a “lifestream,” a feed of all of the content I’ve posted online. The chronological list would show new Flickr photos, Twitters, BlogHUD posts from Second Life, and so on.

A while back, I signed up for Jaiku, which looked to be a Twitter-like service that also aggregates the user’s content. I wasn’t impressed at the time, but after reading some blog posts from other “lifestreamers,” I’m getting more and more excited about the possibilities. Even better, one of the co-founders of the company, Petteri Koponen, just answered one of my questions minutes after I posted it in my Jaiku feed. Wow!

I’ll be playing around with Jaiku more in the next week or so, and look for it to be added to my newly-redesigned site, um, someday.

I’ve got a ton of little things I’ve been meaning to blog for a while, so I’m throwing them all into one big post…

• Waaaayyyy back in February, I got the chance to build a website for my mom’s store. The Vintage Quaker Books website uses WordPress and gives her the ability to keep her customers informed about new book finds and upcoming sales. It was fun for me, since it was the first WP template I’d built from scratch. Turns out it’s not as difficult as it looks. (And Mom, this is your push to write another blog post!)
• This week, I received a request from a new friend for contributions to his fundraising for an MS Walk, a very worthy cause. He’s only got about a week to raise a ton of cash, so I’m hoping to help spread the word.
• Although Passover has come and gone, I’m still working on cleaning out the spiritual chametz (in this case, organizing my digital life). I’ve just started using a great Mac donationware program called Journler to keep track of the PDFs, websites, notes, and clippings I accumulate each day. While I get adjusted to my new workflow, I’m wondering if anyone else out there is using the program (and how they’re doing it). Anyone?
• And in other “late to the game” news, I’ve just joined LinkedIn, since it seems like everyone I know who’s NOT in the entertainment industry relies on it for networking. Since I’m trying to branch out into other career paths, it seems like a good resource. Thoughts?

My last few days have been very productive, so I decided to take some time off tonight (after I get just a few more things done…). I stopped by Hollywood Video on my way home from running an errand, picked up a couple movies and an Xbox game, and was absolutely stunned when the guy at the counter asked if I’d like to pay 25 cents to “protect the game.”

“Protect it from what?” I asked.

“Well, you know, in case it gets damaged,” he said, with a completely straight face.

“You’re suggesting I buy insurance in case I damage a rental video game by PLAYING IT?”

“Yeah.”

“No.”

“It’s only 25 cents.”

Is this seriously Hollywood Video’s policy? What happened to the days when you could return a rental because it wasn’t working properly and get a refund or exchange? For that matter, what has happened to video games that they’re so fragile they can’t be played for a week without the risk of damage?

So, my question to you is: Have any of you ever heard of this policy, or is it some kind of scam - like rental car insurance - that they tack on to send PMS-ing women over the edge?

And another great comedian’s gone. Sad, sad day.

I stopped by this cheesesteak place in Second Life last night and took this snapshot. I guess the Second Life servers were struggling all night, because there was a lot of lag. Consequently, some of the stuff in this shop hadn’t “rezzed” by the time I took the snapshot. That grey sign over the picture of the cheesesteak was a sign for Amoroso rolls.

Yes, Laurie, that is a virtual Tastykake sign!

My friend Greg sent me a link to the new U2 video on YouTube, “Window in the Skies”, which should win an award for “Most Noticeable Work by a Music Video Editor.” It’s a great video, but even cooler because it uses several clips from the Coachella film that my friends made. (I worked on Coachella, too). The song’s catchy, so I have a feeling I may be headed to iTunes in a second…

I love this. (From a contest for video game themed inspirational posters. Via Coudal?)

If you’re drawn to the 101 in 1001 concept – like I am – then you probably share my love for learning about new things, starting new projects, and being a sort of “jack-of-all-trades.” You might also enjoy 2 books I just read: The Renaissance Soul by Margaret Lobenstine and Refuse to Choose by Barbara Sher. Both women also have web sites with fairly active message boards and mailing lists. They give tips and techniques for doing what you love… everything you love… and, more importantly they offer reassurance that there are others in this world who can’t bear the idea of settling down to just one career for life.

Although I recommend both books, Margaret Lobenstine’s book is more of a general overview, while Barbara Sher’s provides exercises to help you figure out what to focus on and how to manage it all. The most important thing I learned was that I can do more by limiting the scope of my projects. If I’m interested in fly fishing, for example, I can take my initial idea of “starting a school for fishing newbies,” which I know I would never finish, and transform it into something more reasonable, such as writing an article about the sport for an outdoor travel web site. Given my current list of about 85 different interests, I would have the freedom to sample more if they weren’t all on the scale of fly fishing universities. (The 101 in 1001 is great for this, since many of them are quick, one-off projects.)

Oh, and as of tomorrow, I’m about 1/3 done with my 1001. Time to get going on another project.